Swiss start-up Minsh [minsh.net] consists of an underwater 3D navigable world where each fish represents a Twitter user. The concept behind the virtual world is that the social behaviour of fish will represent what people are talking about online. In the world of Minsh, people writing about a given subject find themselves swimming in the same school. When a person updates his or her Twitter status, the fish swims away to join people with similar thoughts on their minds. Currently still in a very early Alpha phase, the website promises the Alpha 2 will be released on July 13th 2009, with more features and just 1,000 invitations.

The business model behind seems to focus on selling "fun and functional" virtual items like improved fish. Will it work?